Wind + Fire: Preaching Jesus to a Pagan Culture

Wind + Fire: Preaching Jesus to a Pagan Culture

Speaker: Pastor Tim Matthews
Date: July 24, 2022

We must carry on the ministry and mission of Jesus through His Church. In Wind + Fire: The Extraordinary Outpouring of the Holy Spirit and Uprising of the Church in the Book of Acts, discover how to return to the pattern of Acts and position ourselves for when Jesus returns.

In this sermon from our WIND + FIRE series, Pastor Tim Matthews discusses idolatry and how we as believers can use humility to connect with those around us.

Sermon Highlights

Idolatry is the worship of someone or something other than God as though it were God.

Acts 17:24-28 (ESV)

“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’”

“Idols are dead; God is living. Idols are false; God is true. Idols are many; God is one. Idols are visible and tangible; God is invisible and intangible… Idols are creatures, the work of human hands; God is the Creator of the universe and of all humankind.” - John Stott

Acts 17:23 (ESV)

“For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”

Humility is required to preach Jesus to a pagan culture.

It takes humility to see.

Acts 17:22 (ESV)

“So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.”

Acts 17:16-17 (ESV)

“Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.”

It takes humility to study.

Acts 17:28 (ESV)

“for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’”

It takes humility to say it.

Acts 17:30-31 (ESV)

“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.””

Philippians 2:3-8 (ESV)

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”